1030 Memoir on Indian Earthquakes. [No. 144. 



them as possible, and any furnished me will be thankfully acknow- 

 ledged. 



Two methods of arrangement for the materials of this summary 

 present themselves ; first, the Earthquakes may be recorded in simple 

 chronological order, without reference to any other circumstance than 

 their succession in time : or second, neglecting their chronological 

 order, they may be formed into groups according to the localities 

 whence they have emanated. The latter appears to me, for several 

 reasons, the preferable of the two: it is more methodical, it affords a 

 species of natural arrangement for the shocks, and it indicates the 

 general distribution of the forces to which the shocks are due. The 

 Earthquakes herein described have therefore been arranged according 

 to the localities from which they have proceeded, as indicated by the 

 best information obtained. 



1. Earthquakes of the Central Himalayan Tract* 



* The information relative to the occurrence of Earthquakes North of the Himalayas 

 which I have been able to collect is so limited, that 1 have not thought it worthy of 

 being included in the body of this Memoir. I am desirous, however, of placing it 

 upon record, and I do so in the form of a note. 



On the night of the 22nd January 1832, a destructive Earthquake occurred in the 

 valley of the Oxus, extending thence across the Hindoo Khoosh to Moultan and La- 

 hore. The late Sir A. Burnes thus alludes to its effect, in Buduckshan (Travels in 

 Bokhara, &c. vol. III. p. 176,) "This country also suffered from an Earthquake in 

 January 1832, which destroyed many villages, and a great part of the population. The 

 roads in many parts of the country were blocked up by the falling of stones, and the 

 river of Budukhshan was hemmed in for five days by a hill that tumbled in upon it. 

 This great convulsion of nature occurred at midnight, and scarcely a family in the 

 country but deplored the loss of some of its members. It was felt at Moultan and 

 Lahore, but the centre of its violence appears to have been the valley of the Oxus." 



The following extract of a letter from the same officer, dated Lahore, 23rd January 

 1832, published in the Journal of the Asiatic Society, vol. I. p. 34, gives an account 

 of the shock as felt at that city, with some other interesting details connected with 

 the Earthquakes of those parts of India generally : — 



"As you will have perceived by the date of my letter, I have crossed the frontier, 

 and am now at Lahore. An event occurred here last night, which I am sure will 

 prove of interest to you— a severe shock of an Earthquake. There were two distinct 

 vibrations, the last continuing, for about ten seconds with alarming violence. It oc- 

 curred eventually at 11 p. m. after we had retired to bed and were asleep. The 

 door of my apartment and all the furniture were shaking with a rattling noise, when 

 I awoke and ran into the open air. The house in which we are lodged is a most 

 substantial dwelling of two stories, built of brick and chunam, being the garden house 

 of M. Allard, and yet it was shaken most violently. 



" I am informed by the Chevalier, that Earthquakes are of frequent occurrence in 

 this city, especially in winter, but he does not remember so violent a vibration as that 

 I have just mentioned. The shock was from East to West, or rather from South-east 

 to .North-west. The lofty minarets of this city afford however convincing proof, that 

 there can have been no very violent commotion of nature within these 200 years. 

 The Earthquakes of Cashmere are frequent, and the natives inform me, that the shocks 

 are more severe nearer the mountains. 



" I should mention that the atmosphere had indicated nothing unusual before the 

 Earthquake, nor did the Barometer undergo any variation before or after it. The 

 Thermometer stood at 37° ; for the last ten days it has been 4° below the freezing point 

 every morning at sun-rise, a much greater depression than I had expected in the 

 Punjaub, where it rose to 102° daily when I was here last July." 

 This Earthquake appears to have been felt throughout Yarkand, Kokan, and other parts 

 of Chinese Tartary, as it is stated by W. H. Wathen, Esq. in a Memoir on Kokan, 

 published in 1834, and founded on information furnished by Usbek pilgrims, that a 

 few years previous, dreadful Earthquakes had devastated the whole of that territory. 

 The following extract from a Memoir on Chinese Tartary, by the same gentleman, 



